This is the first weekend where the honor/rep grind seemed like work. Almost. 🙂

Msaker, with two marks of AV honor in his bag, would have been happy with just a loss. No, it was a long, drawn out win. And a few more losses after that to round things out. He did ding 999/1000 Exalted with Frostwolf, and nearly told /bg “You can kiss this green Orc’s butt Out of here!” But, no. Picking up my purplez, and respeccing out of Polearm specialization, he returned to the Valley anyway. Fool’s rush in.

Arcarius played in a string of quick Alliance victories. In the last match he left Jaguarete in the stables and picked himself up a frostwolf he named Draka, in honor of the defenders of Drek. (Draka, per lore, is the mother of Thrall and a tough fighter in her own right.) But then came the shocker, a loss.

How did that happen? We raced to Galv, and that was easy enough. It was a prolonged fight at the Iceblood Graveyard. Then the assualt on Frostwolf Graveyard, which happened to be defended by 50-some Warlocks and Shadow Priests. Maybe it was just 5. It was enough. They were sending us back, one by one, to the Aid Station in Dun Baldar. “Mmm, Game over,” I told myself.

Oh, that’s not to say we didn’t try. The one by one assault never really works. When I realized that’s all the Alliance were going to do I decided to take care of a little business. I went to the Proving Grounds in the Icewing cave to do that quest for the trinket.

When Blackhoof went to his Proving Grounds, level 60 Shaman in lots of epic gear, he had his furry butt handed to him by scads of Troggs. He didn’t manage to solo it.

Arcarius, on the other hand, with a new a brand new level 50 pet knowing only Growl, proceeded to go through the cavern Hunter-style. I.e. he easily made it to the banner and recovered it. On the way back out, taking his time, one harpy at a time, Draka dinged a level of attitude and got trained in Bite 7 and Dash 3. Things went more quickly from there. It was laughably easy. Level 54 Hunter, level 50 pet equipped only with Growl, pwned, if you will, the Icewing Cavern.

With Jaguarete he solo’d the level 54 elite Dragonkin Menace quest from Morgan’s Vigil. One Dragon at a time, he did them all. (And got a couple black dragonscales to boot. Whoever has the patience of farming black dragonscales for leatherworking … jeeze, good luck on that.)

Draka will be nice since she’ll be a medium health, armor, and dps pet. (Jaguarete is a fragile killer, low health and armor, albet high DPS.) Just like Thrall’s mom, I’m sure, a dreadnought.

Anyway, coming out of the Icewing Caverns the battle is still going on. The defense of Dun Baldar is holding them off. Probably why I wound up with 300+ HK’s for the game. I recognized a few of the Horde from down south so when we finally wound up rezzing in the tunnel I headed south to Frostwolf, thinking the defense would be gone. No, as strongly held as ever. We eventually took the RH and starting pulling, but we didn’t beat the Horde this time.

Nevertheless, Arcarius is 16000/21000 to Exalted with Stormpike, and I’m looking forward to see how both Arcarius and Msaker make out honor-wise. Together they earned 100k+ honor this week.

P.S. To those who rail against folks on RP servers: Stuff yourself. When I say “Things aren’t going well,” in the raid chat, don’t single me out because I’m from Kirin Tor*. Oh, yeah? We’re all jerks? You’re so smart? My 3rd character in the valley, seeing both sides. When the tide is coming in, I am knowledgeable enough to say “The water is rising, we need to do something different.” WTF does it matter that I’m from an RP server? So, Kristill of Hellscream, or whatever your forgettable name was, who /afk’d out rather than even make an attempt**, two things: You’re 1) a loser, and 2) a quitter. Enjoy your deserter buff. Or did you just log in shame? Nice MC gear. Class leader are you? Not in my eyes. Stay out of the Valley if you aren’t up to it, and aren’t up to dealing with things.

*Leave Kirin Tor, and the other RP realms, out of your list of excuses for your personal shortcomings and lack of accomplishment. We’re there 2 or 3 at a time tops. Your ownership of any loss is a far greater portion than ours.

**As for making an attempt, I was there when we did finally take the Relief Hut. In fact, I capped the flag. A Paladin mounted up and pulled the guards. A few came in to occupy the defenders, and I capped it. (I couldn’t do it alone, but I was there when we as a group got it done.) And then I ran, shooting all the way, into the graveyard. And, an hour and a half later, who was right about the outcome? I was. And who was there till the bitter end? I was. All you “If it ain’t less than 20 minutes I’m afk’ing out” types: YOU give your faction/server a bad name.